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Our website has been designed to enable you to access the data you require in the most straightforward way possible.
We appreciate many of our users have specific requirements, so below we have listed answers to the most frequently asked questions (FAQs) about searching for data through the Service. If you cannot find the answer you are looking for, please contact our Helpdesk using our online help form.
Studies (sometimes referred to as ‘datasets’ or ‘data collections’) can be found in our data catalogue using its search box. You can use filters/facets to narrow down your search. Filters include Date, Topic, Data Type, Access and Country.
Use the search box to look for studies on a particular subject. You can also search for the study number or the name(s) of the principal investigator(s) if known. You can also use the search box to find studies that are part of a series, such as the Labour Force Survey.
Your search query is treated both as a free-text search, i.e. it will match occurrences of that search string in the most relevant metadata fields in the catalogue records, and as a Keyword search, which will match Keywords found in the corresponding Keyword metadata field in the catalogue records. Keywords are subject terms drawn from the UK Data Archive’s Humanities and Social Science Electronic Thesaurus (HASSET) which have been used to index each study at concept or variable level, and which represent the concepts covered by that study. Keyword matches are shown in search results prefixed by ‘Keyword’ (e.g. Keyword:POVERTY). If you know the name of the Keyword you are looking for, you can type it into the search box directly by typing “Keyword:” followed by the Keyword in question in capital letters, for example Keyword:POVERTY.
Note that a Keyword search on a term is likely to produce a more nuanced result than a free-text search, since the role of keywords is to describe concepts within a dataset. For example, the free-text search ‘labour’ finds any reference to ‘labour’ (mainly data on labour used as a resource), whereas the Keyword search displays different, more specific options, such as CHILD LABOUR, LABOUR (INDUCED), LABOUR (RESOURCE), LABOUR FORCE etc.
For more information about how to formulate search queries, consult the Search Tips in the data catalogue.
You can use filters to narrow down your search. Filters include Date, Topic, Data Type, Access and Country. For example, searching for ‘energy prices’ and then using the topic filter ‘health’ reduces the list of results and displays only those studies about energy prices in the topic area ‘health’. The same goes for the other filters Date from/Date to, Data Type, Access and Country.
Each dataset in our data catalogue is assigned one or more topics, which describe the overall subject areas of the study. The topic filter can be used to narrow the search or browse the data. The filter contains high-level topics only: labour and employment, demography (population, vital statistics and censuses); society and culture; economics; social stratification and groupings; health; education; social welfare policy and systems; housing and land use; transport and travel; science and technology; natural environment; politics; trade, industry and markets; history; psychology; media, communications and language; and law, crime and legal systems.
If you are looking for studies on a particular theme, you may also browse data by theme.
You can find individual variables and questions using the Variable and question bank. Coverage extends across many of the major UK surveys and longitudinal studies we hold but please note that not all studies in our data catalogue have had their variables added to this search. To check whether the survey you are interested in is covered, go to Variable and Question Bank via the link beneath the search box in the data catalogue, open up the ‘Survey’ filter and click ‘Show more’.
You can sort your results by choosing a sorting order: most recently released, relevance, alphabetical and reverse alphabetical order of the titles, and date of collection (studies only).
To see further details about a study, click on its title in the results list. This takes you to its data catalogue record which contains, amongst other things, its abstract, citation, and edition history. The catalogue record also shows the type of access the data owner has granted for the study, and contains links to its Documentation and Resources, where available.
Each dataset is assigned one of three access levels, depending on the detail, confidentiality and sensitivity of the data: open, safeguarded, and controlled.
Open datasets are available for anyone to access. Safeguarded datasets are available to researchers, students and teachers from any discipline, organisation or country but require registration with the UK Data Service, completion of an End User Licence, and possibly impose other conditions. Controlled datasets are only available to more experienced social researchers via the SecureLab.
Commercial use of data is possible in some cases but may incur further restrictions and costs.
The access level of a dataset is shown in the ‘Access’ field of its catalogue record, with further details available under the ‘Access data’ tab.
Census aggregate data and census flow data are available to anyone under the Open Government Licence. Only registered users are able to access some of the data available from the UK Data Service, such as boundary data. Census microdata have different access conditions depending on the dataset.
Access to the SecureLab is available to researchers who can fulfil the access conditions for the data required:
Note: Civil servants should continue to use the ONS Secure Research Service (SRS).
Please Get in touch if you have any queries about whether you are eligible to apply for access.
Open data can be accessed without the need to register with the UK Data Service.
Access to safeguarded and controlled data requires registration with the UK Data Service.
We use federated access management (‘Shibboleth’) user authentication, and you will need a username and password to register.
Note: The majority of students and members of staff at UK institutions of further or higher education will be able to use the username and password issued by their institution.
See Registration FAQs for further details.
The majority of our survey datasets are available to download in the following formats: SPSS, Stata and tab-delimited text (suitable for use in MS Excel, R, Open Document Format (.ods), etc.).
Our international macrodata are available online via UKDS.Stat or the IMF eLibrary. Data/tables can be downloaded in MS Excel and comma-separated formats.
Access to census data is via bespoke tools that produce extracts online which can then be read into a spreadsheet or mapping package using boundary data in a variety of formats. Take a look at the Online tools for exploring data page for more details.
Qualitative data formats include Rich Text Format (.rtf), Portable Document Format (.pdf), MS Word and some specialist qualitative formats such as NViVO.
See our What download and data formats are available page for further details.
Open data are free to access and download.
To download/order safeguarded data, you must register with the UK Data Service. Once you have registered with the UK Data Service you will have your own account that you can access by using the ‘Login’ link on each web page.
When you have located a study in the data catalogue that you require, open the ‘Access data’ tab in its catalogue record and click ‘Add to account’ or ‘Download’. Open datasets and datasets in our ReShare repository can be downloaded directly. Other datasets must be added to your account first.
When you have all the data you require in your account, you can add them to a ‘Project’. If you don’t have any projects, you must create one first, providing details of your intended use of the data. Projects can be ‘Non-commercial’, ‘Commercial’ or ‘Teaching’ (if you intend to use the data in a classroom setting).
Once you have added the dataset to a project, click the ‘Request access’ button to view the steps required to gain access to it. Click ‘Complete actions’ to start the application process. Use the ‘Next’ button to move through the steps.
See our How to download and order your data page for further details.
The data catalogue record page for each study contains information on citation and copyright. You can easily copy the correct citation for the study to your clipboard there, ready to paste the reference into your work. The citation is also included in the study zip file that you download.
Visit our Learning hub to find more guidance on how to Cite data correctly.
Data required for non-commercial purposes can be downloaded, or accessed, at no cost. Charges will apply if the data are to be used for a commercial purpose. See the How can I use your data for my project? page for further details.
Our data catalogue contains a full study description (see the ‘Details’ tab) for each study. Online documentation is available via the ‘Documentation’ tab. Details of associated resources such as publications and case studies of data use can be found under the ‘Resources’ tab. Access conditions can be viewed using the ‘Access tab’.
The ‘Details’ tab provides information about the study, such as title, principal Investigator(s) and other contributors, sponsors, an abstract with details about the study objectives, topics covered, and methodology, keywords, information on citation (including a Digital Object Identifier (DOI)) and copyright.
The ‘Documentation’ tab includes the documents that support the data and their use, such as questionnaires, user guides, technical reports and other methodological information. We provide variable information where possible (metadata such as names and labels) in data dictionaries or variable catalogues. However, documentation varies widely across studies and not all the information listed here may be available for a particular study.
The ‘Resources’ tab provides links to materials related to the study such as audiovisual media, case studies, publications and project websites. Again, not all studies have associated resources.
We can help users locate data from other archives in Europe and worldwide. We can also obtain data from the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) in the USA for UK users.
You can find data for several key international series in the data catalogue. We also have a list of other worldwide data archives.
Note: To request data from ICPSR, use the ‘Special request’ option within a registered project in your UK Data Service account.
Macrodata are data aggregated to a country or regional level. The international macrodata studies in the UK Data Service contain socio-economic and other time series data for a range of countries, often over a substantial time period.
Search for international macrodata in the Data Catalogue.
Studies held in our ReShare repository also appear in search results in the data catalogue. ReShare study numbers (SN) have a different format, usually composed of six digits, beginning with ‘8’ (e.g. ‘856532’). Access to ReShare studies depends on the access level set by the data owner (depositor). This can be found under the ‘Access data’ tab in the study catalogue record. Click on the ‘Download from ReShare repository’ button and to view the ReShare repository record for the study, scroll down to the ‘Available files’ section and click the ‘+’ sign next to each file.
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